Sams. Of such examples add me to the roll;

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Me easily indeed mine may neglect,

But God's propos'd deliverance not so.

Chor. Just are the ways of God,

And justifiable to men;

Unless there be who think not God at all:

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If any be they walk obscure;

For of such doctrine never was there school,

But the heart of the fool,

And no man therein doctor but himself.

Yet more there be who doubt his ways not just,

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As to his own edicts found contradicting,

Then give the reins to wand'ring thought,
Regardless of his glory's diminution;
Till, by their own perplexities involv'd,
They ravel more, still less resolv'd,
But never find self-satisfying solution.

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As if they would confine th' interminable,

And tie him to his own prescript,

Who made our laws to bind us, not himself,

And hath full right t' exempt

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Whom so pleases him by choice

From national obstriction, without taint

Of sin, or legal debt;

For with his own laws he can best dispense.

He would not else, who never wanted means,

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Nor in respect of th' enemy just cause,

To set his people free,

Have prompted this heroic Nazarite,

Against his vow of strictest purity,

To seek in marriage that fallacious bride,

Unclean, unchaste.

Down reason then; at least vain reasonings down;

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Though reason here aver,

That mortal verdict quits her of unclean :
Unchaste was subsequent, her stain not hiş.
But see here comes thy rev'rend sire
With careful step, locks white as down,
Old Manoa: advise

Forthwith how thou ought'st to receive him.
Sams. Ay me, another inward grief, awak'd
With mention of that name renews th' assault.

[Enter] MANOAH.

Man. Brethren and men of Dan, for such ye seem, Though in this uncouth place; if old respect,

As I suppose, towards your once glory'd friend,

My son,
Your younger feet, while mine cast back with age
Came lagging after; say if he be here.

now captive, hither hath inform'd

Chor. As single now in low dejected state,
As erst in highest, behold him where he lies.
Man. O miserable change! is this the man,
That invincible Samson, far renown'd,
The dread of Israel's foes, who with a strength
Equivalent to angels walk'd their streets,
None offering fight; who single combatant
Dnell'd their armies rank'd in proud array,
Himself an army, now unequal match
To save himself against a coward arin'd
At one spear's length. O ever-failing trust
In mortal strength! and oh ! what not in man
Deceivable and vain? nay, what thing good
Pray'd for, but often proves our woe, our bane?
I pray'd for children, and thought barrenness

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In wedlock a reproach; I gain'd a son,
And such a son as all men hail'd me happy;
Who would be now a father in my stead?
O wherefore did God grant me my request,
And as a blessing with such pomp adorn'd?

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Why are his gifts desirable, to tempt

Our earnest pray'rs, then, giv'n with solemn hand
As graces, draw a scorpion's tail behind?

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For this did the angel twice descend? for this

Ordain'd thy nurture holy, as of a plant
Select, and sacred, glorious for a while,
The miracle of men; then in an hour
Ensnared, assaulted, overcome, led bound,
Thy foes derison, captive, poor, and blind,
Into a dungeon thrust, to work with slaves?
Alas! methinks whom God hath chosen once
To worthiest deeds, if he through frailty err,
He should not so o'erwhelm, and as a thrall
Subject him to so foul indignities,

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Be it but for honour's sake of former deeds.

Sams. Appoint not heavenly disposition, father;

Nothing of all these evils hath befall'n me

But justly; I myself have brought them on,

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Sole author I, sole cause: if ought seem vile,

As vile hath been my folly, who have profan'd
The mystery of God giv'n me under pledge
Of vow, and have betray'd it to a woman,
A Canaanite, my faithless enemy.

This well I knew, nor was at all surpris'd

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But warn'd by oft experience: did not she

373. "Appoint not heav'nly disposition,"---Arraign not.

summon not to answer.

Of Timna first betray me, and reveal

The secret wrested from me in her height
Of nuptial love profest, carrying it strait

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To them who had corrupted her, my spies,,
And rivals? in this other was there found
More faith, who also in her prime of love,
Spousal embraces, vitiated with gold,
Though offer'd only, by the scent conceiv'd
Her spurious first-born, treason against me?

Thrice she assay'd with flattering pray'rs and sighs,

And amorous reproaches to win from me,

My capital ecret, in what part my strength

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Lay stor'd, in what part summ'd, that she might know; 305 Thrice I deluded her, and turn'd to sport

Her importunity, each time perceiving

How openly, and with what impudence

She purpos'd to betray me, (and which was worse
Than undissembled hate) with what contempt
She sought to make me traitor to myself;

Yet the fourth time, when, must'ring all her wiles,
With blandish'd parleys, feminine assaults,
Tongue-batteries, she surceas'd not, day or night,
To storm me overwatch'd, and weary'd out,
At times when men seek most repose and rest,
1 yielded, and unlock'd her all my heart,
Who, with a grain of manhood well resolv'd,
Might easily have shook off all her snares:
But foul effeminacy held me yok'd
Her bond-slave; O indignity, O blot
To honour and religion! servile mind
Rewarded well with servile punishment!
The base degree to which I now am fall'n,
These rags, this grinding is not yet so base

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As was my former servitude, ignoble,
Unmanly, ignominious, infamous,

True slavery, and that blindness worse than this,
That saw not how degen'rately I serv'd,

Man. I cannot praise thy marriage-choices, son,
Rather approv'd them not; but thou didst plead
Divine impulsion prompting how thou might'st
Find some occasion to infest our foes.

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I state not that; this I sure, our foes

Found soon occasion thereby to make thee

Their captive, and their triumph; thou the soouer

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Temptation found'st, or over-potent charms,

To violate the sacred trust of silence

Deposited within thee; which to have kept
Tacit, was in thy pow'r true; and thou bear'st
Enough, and more, the burden of that fault;

430

Bitterly hast thou paid,and still art paying,
That rigid score. A worse thing yet remains;
This day the Philistines a pop'lar feast
Here celebrate in Gaza; and proclaim
Great pomp, and sacrifice, and praises loud,

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To Dagon, as their God who hath deliver'd

Thee, Samson, bound and blind into their hands,

Them out of thine, who slew'st them many a slain.
So Dagon shall be magnify'd, and God,

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Besides whom is no God, compar'd with idols,
Disglorify'd, blasphem'd, and had in scorn
By the idolatrous rout amidst their wine;
Which to have come to pass by means of thee,
Samson, of all thy sufferings think the heaviest,
Of all reproach the most with shame that ever
Could have befallen thee and thy father's house.
Sams. Father, I do acknowledge and confess
That I this honour, I this pomp have brought

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